The present invention relates to accessories for small arms, and more particularly to rail systems for mounting accessories on rifles.
The addition of rail systems, led by the revolutionary Picatinny rail system, has radically altered the accessories and equipment typically mounted on a combat rifle. It should be noted at the outset that rail systems are generally applicable to all weapons on which accessories can be usefully mounted. Thus, rail systems can be designed for hunting rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, light machine guns and the like. The illustrations set out below focus on military rifles, as those weapons form the largest group of weapons to which the claimed invention applies, but the invention, as set out in the claims, is not so limited.
Combat rifles in the Vietnam conflict carried practically no accessories. The stock/grip configuration was standard, sights were of the open iron variety, and the only item envisioned as optional equipment was a bayonet, mounted on a stud. Now, however, both day and night optics are expects, along with flashlight illumination, IR or laser illumination/target designator devices, or even devices such as a 40 mm grenade launcher.
All of this optional equipment is made possible by the rail system, which as the name implies, is a multi-purpose mounting platform secured to the weapon. Of course, the rail must be very securely attached, as the optics and the illuminator devices must remain boresighted with the weapon. All conventional systems achieve that stability by providing for some modification of the weapon to accommodate the rail, typically drilling and threading holes to receive mounting screws in either the stock or the receiver.
The requirement to provide such mounting carries several disadvantages. First, the weapon will be limited to one type of rail, as the mounting arrangements differ from rail to rail. Users would prefer to switch rails to arrive at tailored weapon packages for different missions, but that becomes difficult when limited to whatever rail system the weapon has been modified to accept. In addition, such work places an additional burden on combat unit resources, as the joining of rail to weapon typically occurs at the operational level.
It would thus be advantageous to be able to dispense with the weapon modification requirement altogether. The art, however, has not been able to provide such a solution.